The girl behind Sexy Hijab and Makeup tutorials

Saima Chowdhury is a 20-year-old photographer, “youtuber”, blogger and photography student based in Birmingham, UK.

Photo from SaimaChowdhury.blogspot.com

How did you start getting into making YouTube videos, particularly the comedic ones?

When I was younger I used to watch a lot of Shane Dawson and danisnotonfire
and I thought what they were doing was great.

It was funny and creative and I knew I liked to make people laugh so I decided to try it out. After making Saimasmileslike (comedy/vlog channel) people started asking me about my hijab styles and general outfits so I made a few tutorials on my channel and I realized that people really enjoyed the style aspect, but I personally didn’t feel like it suited the style of my channel, so I made Saimastyleslike for all my style videos.

Do you ever worry that your material will offend people?

LOL I don’t worry about it but I know some people get offended. But that’s the
thing with the internet and human beings in general, they’re all different with
different opinions and sense of humor.

You’re definitely changing the face of what people think of women who wear hijab. I think it’s great to see someone so openly embrace poking fun at what Muslims get a little too obsessed with-including hijab fashion tutorials. What have the responses been so far?

Thanks. So far I’ve had a lot of positive and some negative but the negative
doesn’t bother me much. I’ve read the positive comments and they’re great, they
boost my confidence and make me want to continue on with what I’m doing.

Are there any new comedy videos in the works?

I just recently uploaded a 2-part collab video with my lovely friend Nosheen
aka OHNOSHEENdidnt called “Hijab Hassles”. I think a lot of hijabis can relate to
it! Besides from that I’ve got a new series of videos in the works but it’s all a
secret for now!

What is your advice to other aspiring hijabi youtubers?

I think the most important one of all is to be yourself and stand your ground,
the Internet can be fun but it can also be cruel. So don’t let the negativity get to
you!

I noticed you also run a fashion website where you post your daily outfits. How did you get started?

I’ve got a lot of friends who are bloggers and they kinda got me into it.

If you could plan 5 years from now, where would you like to be and what would you be doing?

Aha there’s a lot of things I want by then! But mainly I’d like to be in my
own photography studio, maybe in London. Getting hired by fancy magazines to shoot
their lasts fashion editorials, photographing weddings with my team and have my own
clothing company up and running with a cute little store!

You can learn more about Saima and find her on various social networks by checking out her personal website.